Care Until the Cure: MRM Site Captures Diabetes Center Vision

MRM created a new site to communicate the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center’s complete integration of academic research and clinical care, while capturing its special warmth and humanity.

Why Pro Bono?

A (very) small girl with Type 1 Diabetes. Her father. A request for help. A serious and continuing need for funds.

We began with a mission. We took away a passion that never left us.

With its one-of-a-kind integrated model of world-class academic research and 360 degree clinical care, the Berrie Center is all about “The Care until the Cure.” It’s a powerful but costly approach, which, in turn, results in a never-ending need for funding. To boil a complicated assignment down to one thing, it was about having the Berrie Center website speak more boldly and more clearly. The MRM team brought together digital, creative and technology to turn the site into a destination true to the Center itself — to grab and hold people’s interest, keep bringing them back, and get more of them to donate more, more often.

Process

To succeed, we needed to do some important things.

Set the Berrie Center apart. The Berrie Center is not just another medical center. It is truly one of a kind. The site had to position the Berrie Center as the research powerhouse it is, while also educating people about how differently they approach care — through family, education and an inseparable connection with the research.

Get people involved. The site is full of places and things to share, from research and care to news and events. We rebuilt the site on a platform that makes it easy for Berrie Center staff to add and edit all of it.

Drive home the need to give. Most givers to the Berrie Center are people it’s helped. We needed to strengthen the fundraising engine and clear up confusion about fundraising realities, so we made the case for giving in different ways. We also filled the site with callouts and reminders.

One more thing. We had to Be Berrie. When we compared the previous incarnation of the Berrie Center website with the Center itself, we knew it was missing the heart of the place. The energy, warmth and life that reaches out to you when you walk through the door of the Center, and again when you talk to the co-founder, Dr. Robin Goland, about the origins of the Center and the connection between researchers and patients. In Dr. Goland's words, "MRM brought our vision to life."

Results

In the three months since its launch, the Berrie Center's site has been visited over 25,000 times by more than 10,000 individuals from 70 countries.

The site is updated every business day with news, events and more, so the Center can constantly drive traffic with e-newsletters and social media.

Donors have been quick to respond, too. The client reports that in the fiscal quarter after the launch of the new site, online giving to the Berrie Center increased by an “astonishing” 600% over the same period in 2012.